Don’t sleep on the truckload spot market

State of Logistics 2016: Pursue mutual benefit Don’t sleep on the truckload spot market AAR reports mixed U.S. carload and intermodal volumes for week ending November 26 Maersk continues ocean carrier consolidation trend, says it will acquire Hamburg Süd With TPP dead in the water, what next? More Logistics News Digital Evolution: Streamlining Logistics and Supply Chain Operations Virtual Conference | Dec 8, 2016 | 1pm ET Keynote Address: The Digital Re-imagination of Supply Chains All Resources Some mainstream economic growth signals like GDP, housing prices, lower inventory levels, and employment have been trending on the positive side lately. But there are others, too, which have not received as much attention. One of those, which has not seen nearly as much public acclaim is truckload spot market activity, according to data from the North American Freight Index, issued by Portland, Oregon-based freight marketplace platform and information provider DAT , a subsidiary of Roper Industries. DAT defines the North American Freight Index as a measure of conditions on the spot truckload freight market. What the most recent edition of the North American Freight Index clearly spells out is that the truckload spot market is heading on a growth path, showing sequential gains from July through November for the first time in five years. DAT observes that this is interesting on multiple levels, including how the Index typically peaks in June and then subsequently sees declines through the remainder of the calendar year, coupled with ramifications for 2017 shipper-carrier contract rates. DAT Analyst Mark Montague was able to offer up some context behind the data and trends currently driving truckload spot market activity. “We went through a period where 2014 was a record year for the spot market and rates climbed very steeply for both spot market and contract rates,” he […]